Chloe O’Shea explains why Online Parish Clerks projects are vital for English genealogy
Online Parish Clerks (OPC) projects are run by groups of volunteers who transcribe English genealogical and historical records of their choice. These transcriptions are then uploaded to the county’s OPC website where anyone can search for their ancestors for free, although images of the documents are not published online because of copyright laws. The most common records are parish registers and census returns, but the range is huge and you also find the likes of militia lists, coroner’s inquests, bastardy documents and memorial inscriptions. Note that OPC projects have no connection to the parish clerks appointed by parish councils.
Volunteers choose one or more parishes to focus on. They often take requests from family historians, and can answer questions about the parish’s surviving records. Volunteers can also pitch in with one-off or occasional transcriptions, rather than a regular commitment.
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OPC schemes began in 2000 when Paul Brewer, Michael McCormick and David Stick had the idea of setting up a county-based free transcription service while at a pub in St Stephen-in-Brannel, a village a few miles southwest of St Austell. The result was the website Cornwall OPC (opc-cornwall.org) which went live the following year, shortly followed by sites for several other counties, and is still running today. The current Cornwall OPC coordinator Diane Donohue emphasises that OPC projects are particularly useful for researchers who cannot visit their forebear’s area, and allow them to contact someone nearby who can take a trip to a local record office or churchyard on their behalf.
The genealogical potential of OPC schemes is substantial, with a large range of records being available online and easy to either browse through or search for a specific ancestor – and when a volunteer leaves a project, their transcriptions remain online for public use. OPC projects have always offered their transcriptions and services for free. However, there are recognised costs involved, such as hosting the website and travelling to record offices,
so donations are gratefully received. Unfortunately, many OPC projects that were once so helpful have folded due to a lack of volunteers, including the schemes for Essex, Norfolk and Warwickshire. Of the surviving projects the majority are in the south of England,
